October 11, 2011

Fake Handbags, Dime Bags, Rutabagas and Snoop Dogg

A number of weeks ago, I was contacted by my friend Roderic, who plays in the Hydra Head band KNUT, for a quote about how different NYC is since 9/11 from an artist's point of view. He works for Swiss publication Le Courrier, and I thought it would be interesting to contribute to foreign language media. Here is the article for anyone curious. This past Friday, the issue came up again, but in a different way. I ran into good friend and local maniac Zenametal; curator of Zena Metal Wants to Conquer the World blog among other things. It was lunchtime on a crowded corner of Canal St., and we both were happy at the turn of events that led us to almost literally bump into each other. She works nearby and was donning fashionable duds for the office, and I wasn't looking too shabby myself. We talked for about 25 minutes, and in that time, the same gentleman approached us several times to vend what I thought he termed "dime bags". At some point I made a comment to her, since we were both looking so damn sophisticated I couldn't imagine he couldn't find anyone else in the throngs of people on a sunny Friday more suited to vend "dime bags" to. Zena, working near that section of Canal St., set me straight. In a quick debriefing, I realized that I heard "dime bag" - an old, almost expected way I had of listening to people mumbling towards me on the street. She let me in on the real words he was uttering: "diamonds, bags!" Oh! Well that sort of elevates us to tourist trash looking for a cheap but expensive looking bargain! I hadn't even noticed it was bootleg bag and bling central there. And I thought he thought we were scum! Still not buying, but a little less confused, I then saw that she was in fact, not toting a pocketbook on her lunch break, which was probably a good reason we were being hounded, not because we looked like we wanted to get stoned. So I'm really comparing from a much earlier time than 9/11; but it is interesting to notice that the things being whispered about on streetcorners are handbags, not dime bags any longer.

Speaking of getting stoned, I'm sure some of you have seen this already, but I thought it was the cutest thing. Everybody's man, Snoop Dogg posted a YouTube video to invite Ian Neale to an upcoming gig he's playing in Wales. Neale is an amateur horticulturist from Cardiff, UK who recently set the World's Record for growing the largest Swede (think rutabaga or swedish turnip) at 81 lbs. - shown below. Mr. Dogg is interested in his crop being as abundant as possible... Is that a Cardiff jersey Snoop is sporting in the video? Word had it that Mr. Neale at first turned down the concert tickets, stating that he is acountry and western fan, but when he went to his job following his declined invite, a co-worker chewed him out about turning down the tickets, and it seemed as if he was going to go to see Snoop Dogg's show in Wales on October 8th. We'll see if Snoop starts winning any Cannabis Cups now.